Secret Killer
by imaginationstarie13
Summary: Someone is sending threats in the form of Valentine cards, and it's up to Frank to find the person before it's too late. Full summary inside
1. February 1

Okay, the summary and Feb 1 have been combined because the Guidelines changed. Also, the summary isn't that long... so they are now combined

**ATAC briefing for Agent Frank Hardy**

**Mission: **Determine the person or people behind the numerous threats disguised as Valentine cards received by six seniors at Bayport High. The police have dismissed these cards as a mere prank, but we here at ATAC have found evidence that makes the danger seem real.

**Location:** Bayport High School

**Potential Victims: **The six seniors, and maybe more targets as it draws closer to Valentine's Day.

**Suspects: **The six kids are highly talented and two have even been considered by Ivy League Schools. No doubt they had made enemies along the way, even with their charm and good manners. There is also the possibility that something bigger is being planned. Find out who is behind this before it is too late.

**This mission requires your immediate attention.**

**This message will be erased in five seconds.**

Just wanted to try an Undercover Brothers style summary.

Other quick notes:

I do not own the Hardy Boys. (Wish I did, but oh well...)

Frank is gay in this, which does play an important role later on.

There are bits of one sided Frank/Phil in this. Whether they get together or not is for me to know and for you to find out. On the other hand, Joe/Iola will be heard about quite a bit.

The days revolve around the 2009 calendar. That means Valentine's Day will fall on a Saturday in the plot.

* * *

I don't own the Hardy Boys or "Love Song". Other than that, enjoy!

~Frank

Ever have that feeling when you wake up in the morning that tells you that your day will go completely wrong in some way? Well, that's kinda what I woke up to this morning.

It wasn't exactly the "everything will go completely and horribly bad today" kind of feeling. Just the "it's not that good of a day today" kind.

I couldn't see why I had this feeling either. ATAC hadn't sent a mission yet, and I hadn't woken up to a gun being pointed at me. So far, it had equated to a pretty decent day.

That was until I actually walked downstairs and saw what had been the cause of my misery for the past few hours. Joe sat at the edge of the dining room table, pretending I didn't exist.

I still don't get it. I had told my family the previous night during dinner that I, Franklin Hardy, was gay. I think my mom was the only one who comforted me. Maybe Aunt Trudy would have too, if she hadn't decided to go to Hollywood to visit her friend, Betty. Other than that, I was on my own.

I headed to the kitchen, and grabbed a box of cereal. Then I ran back upstairs to catch up on some studying.

Okay, I wasn't going to study. But that would be my excuse at the moment, except I don't think my father would care for what I was doing. I was actually going through about twenty emails that each had about five to ten attachments for me to look at. If they had on average seven or eight pictures, and if there were twenty…

Damn. Around one hundred and fifty things to load.

I had gotten through about four of them (and one eighth of the cereal) when something in the window caught my eye. I slid my chair over to the view of the backyard, and saw a giant, red, heart shaped box in the middle of the snow. I knew instantly it was for me, but wasn't exactly sure who it was from. There were two people that came to mind, but one seemed more likely at the time.

Joe said nothing when I ran out the backdoor into the snow with nothing but a hoodie, jeans, and a pair of boots to keep me warm. I kind of wished he did, but most of my body was screaming at me at the moment for going out when it was in the single digits.

I scooped up the box from the snow, barely noticing the small tracks that were slowly being erased with the snow falling overhead. I ran back inside, shut the door, took off my boots, and climbed the stairs two at a time.

Joe did toss me a look, but it was only for a second to probably see if I was willing to get pneumonia or something.

I wanted to walk over and show him the box. I wanted to say "Hey, this may be our next mission!"

But Joe left ATAC in the beginning of the year. He said it was because his grades were falling and that the last mission had death too close for comfort. But I knew there was another side to this story. Joe wanted to have more time for his social life, especially now that he has set his eyes on Iola Morton. But more importantly, he wanted to not be dragged around to places he never even knew about only to get close to death again.

Dad was kind of happy. It meant one less kid to worry about, risking his life on a daily basis.

But I was furious. I never told either of them, but I was screaming in my dreams for my brother to stop being an idiot. How can he just stop, after all of the lives that we had saved and all of the cool things that we've done? I'll admit, it's tiring sometimes, but it's worth it. I rather be exhausted and have a lack of a social life than letting a murderer hurt another person.

Once back in my room, I closed the door and looked at the box. There weren't any markings that suggested a brand of any sort, confirming my suspicions. I opened the box to find some stacks of paper and a CD inside. I walked over to my computer and popped it in. The screen instantly went blank before a giant, red heart appeared on the screen.

"_Valentine's Day is a time for romance to flourish, when couples of all ages celebrate their love for each other."_ I recognized the voice from a commercial. It had been playing since the beginning of January, which annoyed many people in the process.

"_There is always some beauty hidden away in singles who are looking for people just like you-"_ The voice was then cut off, as the paper heart on the screen was ripped into two pieces, and then the tip of the bottom was set aflame.

"_There are also those who see Valentine's Day as a way to get revenge."_ The voice had changed to one of the contacts from ATAC. _"Sorry about the intro. Thought you should be reminded of this day of romance, because that is what this next case is based upon."_

"Valentine's Day?" I said aloud to no one. It was weird to think of Valentine's Day going together with any case, especially since it was two weeks away.

As usual, the contact had read my mind. _"It's a bit odd to try to match Valentine's Day with murder, but that's exactly what we have here. In the last few days, various people from Bayport High have been getting threats in the form of cards."_

Red cards with gold writing appeared on the screen. It paused at one of them, and I read

"Dear Greg,  
Will you not be mine?  
Before I kill you,  
Think, being of divine.  
From your Secret Killer"

"_Six kids have received them so far, all of them seniors with bright futures ahead of them. Two of them are even possibly attending Ivy League schools in the coming summer. The police had dismissed these threats, but we have reasons to believe that the danger is real."_

The screen zoomed in on the writing. _"The gold writing is actually made from gold being compressed and held together with a very fine glue. Combining all of the letters that have been received, the thirty cards have one thousand dollars worth of gold."_

"Wow…" I mumbled, as the picture changed to another card.

"_In addition, the rhinestones seen on this card are actual gemstones. The cards have more than two thousand dollars worth of them."_

I almost chocked. Almost three thousand dollars worth of gold and jewels in thirty cards? This couldn't have been a simple prank.

"_We at ATAC are positive that this is a real threat. Someone with a twisted mind is after these six kids, and there may be more victims as Valentine's Day comes closer. Frank Hardy, you must find out and stop whoever wants to kill them."_

"_One more thing. The trainee that you have been working with has been upgraded to field agent, and will help you in any way."_

"_As usual, this disc will be erased in five… four… three… two… one…"_

"Love Song" began to blare from my speakers.

I took out the disc, and dumped the papers from the box onto my bed. They were profiles about the kids, with pictures attached. I recognized them easily. Greg Walters, Stacy Trick, Ron Parker, Diana Woods, Terrance Jones, and Troy Black were all known in Bayport High.

Why would someone want them dead? They were all really nice to… well, everyone. Then again, they had to have made some enemies at one point or another.

Another paper caught my eye. It was a red heart folded in half with lace all around it. A note was attached, stating _"This card was received by Stacy in her locker this past Monday."_

I slowly opened in, and let out a small gasp. This card had both gold and rhinestones all over it. What appeared to be diamonds and rubies shone under the overhead light. The gold glowed as I read "I love to kill you Stacy. From your Secret Killer."

I had two weeks to find the mastermind behind this, and something told me that I would need all of that time to figure out who it was.

I pulled out my cell phone, and was instantly greeted with a message telling me I got a text. I opened it up, to find out it was from "AgentGA" with a question, asking if I had gotten the mission yet.

I texted back a reply, and within another minute I received "What do you need from me?"

That was a good question. What would I need from the new agent? I thought it over for a few minutes, coming up with a list. I told him to check his email for the commands, and I began to type away furiously at the keyboard of my computer.

At the end of the list, I had typed "I need you to pretend I don't exist for the next two weeks. We can't let the person think we're getting close to them. And… I told Joe about me being gay and all, and he isn't taking it well. Just slip the stuff into my locker when you get a chance. You know my combination."

I clicked "Send" before shutting off the computer and going back to bed. The other attachments can wait. Right now, I had to save some people before Valentine's Day came around.

I hate mornings when that gut feeling tells me it wasn't going to be a good day.


	2. February 2

Diana and Ivy are mine. Everything else isn't (sadly).  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Frank

Right off the bat, I knew school was going to be Hell. And I was mostly right, too.

An asshole by the name of Brian Conrad instantly pointed me out to his friends and laughed. Loudly. It wasn't even first period yet, either.

I silently cursed at my brother for telling someone about my preferences (most likely Chet), which led to a chain reaction that brought me to… well, this. Being either ignored or ridiculed by people I had once though of as friends. Luckily for me, there were some people that I knew who weren't so mean.

Ivy Richards had pulled me over before third period into a small hallway that almost no one uses. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine-"

"No you aren't."

"Then why did you asked?"

"Good question." She sighed. "Callie Shaw wanted me to ask."

"Callie?" Callie was a good friend of mine, and I heard rumors that she even had a crush on me. Shouldn't she want to join the angry mob that is forming behind my back?

"She's worried about you, Frank. She wants to talk to you at lunch."

"And join me in the 'loser corner'?" There was really no such corner, but I bet there'll be one the second I enter the cafeteria today.

"Art room, dummy. We actually convinced Mr. Barbs to let us eat in his room for the next few months."

"Months? Am I really suppose to suffer that long?"

Ivy sighed again. "You know as well as I do that we need to get some work done for the big thing in April. And guess what you're signed up for?"

"I don't think I want to know." I looked at my watch. "I got to get going, Ivy."

"Well, see ya. And remember, art room!" We went our separate ways after that. It made me feel a little bit better, even though I was heading into history to face Brian. Again.

I attempted to listen to Mr. Edwards talking about how Louis XIV of France used the palace of Versailles to actually control the nobility. However, _attempted_ was the key word at the moment. Instead, my ears were constantly bombarded with the sounds of laughter and jokes made behind my back about me. Next thing I know, the bell has rung and I got up to find that someone had decided to dumb a bag of icing (probably from the home ed. class) and sports drinks all over my stuff.

This day just keeps getting better and better.

Lunch came around sooner than usual, and I could feel my insides tangle up. What am I suppose to tell Callie? More importantly, what does she want to talk to _me_ about?

I entered the quiet art room, and noticed Callie sitting by a workbench near the window. The sun was right behind her, filling the dim room.

"Um… hi," I said.

"Hi Frank." Callie seemed perfectly composed. "What's up?"

"The water content in my book bag," I answered lamely. She gave me a questioning look, so I lifted up the bag in the air for her to see the damage.

"Frank, that's horrible! Who did this?"

"My bet is Conrad, but then again the whole school decided to make me a target, so I really have no idea." I sighed. "Maybe it's time I try using my detective skills."

"The whole school does not hate you! Well… at least I don't hate you."

"Well, that's- wait. You don't hate me?"

Callie gave a dramatic sigh as she got up. "Isn't the whole point of caring for someone is that you want them to be happy?"

"I would ask Joe, but he hasn't talked to me at all recently."

"Joe's probably just trying to adjust. I had a cousin who went through this whole thing a while back. She tried to ignore her best friend because she was scared-"

"Scared of what?!" I burst out. "They're not the ones who are made fun of or targeted! They don't have to deal with everyone ignoring them, or pushing them around, or-" I realized Callie was now just staring at me, her eyes betraying her calm composure. "Sorry, Callie. It's just… It's hard to deal with."

"I know." She walked up, and hugged me. "I know."

"Am I interrupting something?" We both turned and stared at the doorway as a brunette girl came into the room.

"Oh, no!" Callie and I quickly separated. I felt my checks growing warm from embarrassment.

"Are you sure I didn't interrupt a moment?" the girl said, smiling.

I was about to say something, but Callie rushed in with "We're not together. Frank's gay, Diana."

Diana smiled. "Sorry, didn't recognize you two there." She held out her hand to me. "I'm Diana Woods."

"Frank Hardy." I returned the handshake. I quickly looked at her messenger bag hanging off of her shoulder, and spotted a folded up, red heart inside. She got another threat today.

"I hear about you a lot from Callie. And the rumors…" Diana looked me straight in the eye. "Don't let them bother you. There's always a good friend around to help you. I would know."

"Huh?"

Callie giggled. "Diana's a lesbian, Frank."

"Oh!"

"Got a girlfriend, too." She smiled at me, and I couldn't help but return it. "How did your situation get so out of hand? I'm kinda curious, since my friends kept their mouths shut till… well, until I'm ready to tell everyone."

"My brother told someone else, who told someone else, and so on."

"Wow. That… well, that sucks." She opened her bag and took out the Valentine. "I wanted to tell the school about my relationship with Kate, but after I got this…" She held the heart out to me. "I'm not so sure."

I looked at the heart, and the sun reflected the small jewels and gold writing as I read aloud "'Your death completes my existence. With hate, your Secret Killer.'"

"I've been getting them all of last week, too. I don't know if it's because someone found out about me, and this is all a prank, or…"

"I'm not so sure…" I said with forced confusion. "Has Kate received any?"

"No, not yet. But something tells me that she will soon." Diana's posture began to fall. "I don't know why someone would do this. It's getting me all worried, and the police said it's a prank, but I can't believe that!"

"You showed the police?" Callie asked, looking over my arm at the Valentine.

"Yeah. I was worried. But then they just laughed and said it was most likely a prank. I want to believe that, but I just can't! No one threatens to kill someone else as a prank!"

"Listen, Diana. I worked on some cases before-"

"He's a great detective too!" I turned to look at Callie. "Sorry."

I gave Callie a small smile, and handed Diana the Valentine. "I want you to ask any of your friends to see if they got one of these, too. Maybe there's a connection." I hid the fear that was growing in me as I thought about the situation more. There might be more victims than these six that we don't know about. What if this was bigger than a group of friends? How many more people have suffered that I don't know about?

"Okay." Diana beamed at the both of us. "I'll try." She turned and walked to the supply closet. "Oh, do you have any info about the GSACA?"

"The what?" Callie asked.

"Gay Straight Artists and Craftsmen Alliance," I said. "They meet everyday after school in this room."

"Wait, we have a Gay Straight Alliance here?"

"Kinda. Technically, we're not supposed to exist," I told Callie. "We're just another art club who can't seem to get the vice principal to go as the GSACA."

"Ug, Mr. Andrews is such an ass."

"He wouldn't even look at me when he came into class forth period for some stupid reminder about the orientation for middle school kids on Valentine's Day."

"Yeah, the old dude is a lot to deal with. Can't wait till I graduate this year." Diana said, coming out with a bottle of green paint. "Well, I gotta go. I'm supposed to be getting paint for Mr. Smith's wall map that he's painting. See you both later."

"Okay, Diana."

"Nice meeting you."

"Same to you Frank. And I'll try to find out any info tonight. Can I meet you in here tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Ta ta for now, then." Diana waved goodbye as she left the room, leaving me with Callie once again.

"Well, did that make you feel better, Frank?" Callie asked, turning back to the window.

"A bit," I admitted. "I thought I would be alone, except for the few kids in the GSACA." I sat down next to her, and pulled out what was left of my lunch. "Except now I'm going to go hungry due to the lack of a decent meal." I threw the soggy paper bag, aiming for the trash can. I made it, and the can made a metallic noise to confirm it.

"Want some of mine? I packed extra slices of cold pizza."

"No, it's fine-"

"No, it's not fine. I have pizza I probably won't ever touch again, and you're right next to me with your stomach growling. Here." She handed me a slice.

"Thanks, Callie. For everything."

"You're not alone, Frank. Just remember that."

"I will."

When the bell rang, signaling for lunch to end, my mood had been lifted dramatically. Yes, my bag was still drying, and I had a feeling one of my textbooks had been ruined in the process. Not to mention that my homework was utterly destroyed. And the people with their jokes and laughter did continue as I sat down for English class.

But my teachers during the second part of the day were nice. The textbook needed to be replaced anyways. And… I realized I did have friends on my side. Callie and Diana helped me, not to mention I remembered the GSACA.

The rest of the day was a bit more relaxing. I was silently grateful for my mother making me take a photography class, since not many others bothered with that course. There was a test in physics, which meant no one could talk or make fun of me unless they wanted to risk getting their test taken away.

I passed Joe's locker, and our eyes met for a brief second. His eyes showed a cold winter between us. He did not fully hate me, yet a rift had formed between us.

I can only hope my eyes showed the sadness that is slowly destroying me with the passing days.

* * *

Hope you liked it! Please review!

H


	3. February 3

Hm... *checks* Nope. Still only own Ivy and Diana.  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Frank

I lied to my mom after school yesterday, so now I'm trying to avoid her. I hate lying to my mother, but I didn't want to tell her about all the stuff I was going through. Instead, I told her someone accidentally bumped into me and spilled all of their stuff on my bag. Mom believed me the second the words were out of my mouth.

I had gone to school with an annoyed feeling in the pit of my stomach. Three days into the case, and I don't anything more about the person than I did Sunday morning. It may be a prank, true… But something told me this was something bigger.

Heading to my locker, I reasoned that I hadn't exactly done nothing. I met Diana, one of the targets. She's willing to help me, so I could probably get a lot of info from her without trouble.

My cell phone vibrated in my bag between second and third period. I found an empty hallway, and took it out to see that I had received a message from an unknown number.

Well, there could be numerous people sending me texts at the moment. There were those who wanted to make fun of me again (like Conrad, again), or ATAC, or…

Might as well open it to find out.

It was the last person I would have expected to have my cell number, but it turned out the message was from Diana. _"Got your number from Cal. Need to meet you after school by parking lot. Kate might be in trouble now."_

Trouble could range from detention to getting a threat. As I walked to class, my mind weighed the percentages. I don't know Kate, so there's a good chance that it was a simple detention. But what if Kate was threatened? What if the person expanded their list, so more people were in danger? What if-

My "what ifs" would have to wait for the next few periods, as I tried to pay attention in class. This time, I kept my bag under the desk, so no one could do anything to it without me knowing.

I realized that this was what it was like to be bullied. I had always been raised to stand up to people like this, but now I'm powerless. I'm paranoid about everything around me. I can't have a second for peace because there is someone who wants to put me down. I'm always on edge, ready to jump at the next person to tap my shoulder-

"Frank?"

"Huh?" I turned to find Ivy walking beside me on my way to my locker.

"You weren't at the meeting yesterday. I thought I… I dunno. Check up on you, I guess."

"Oh, the meeting! Yeah, sorry. It kinda slipped my mind," I said. It was the truth, too, considering I was freaked out about who was going to ruin my life and who could be a possible attempted murderer.

"Callie said something about a case. Are you not telling me something?"

"Um, maybe?"

She sighed. "Just try to remember the orientation next Saturday, please? Rachel's giving me a hard time as it is."

"Okay, I'll try. Just… don't expect me around for a few days."

"Don't worry. I know all about your history with mysteries. I'll drag Tanner into helping." She turned down a hallway opposite of where I was heading. "Later!"

"See ya, Ivy."

A few minutes later, I opened my locker, to find a note taped to the door.

_Still can't turn up anything about the jewels. Interesting news though: Diana is very, very close to being accepted in one of the Ivy League colleges. Could it be a possible motive?_

_Agent GA_

I took the note of and stuffed it into my pocket, then took out my books. A group came down the hallway near my locker, and I couldn't help but listen in to their conversation.

"Got any plans for Valentine's Day, Phil?" Andrew, a guy I knew, asked.

"Me? Well, there is a special someone…" Phil hinted. The others roared with laughter, demanding to know who it was. As they kept pestering, I felt my heart shatter. Phil had plans for Valentine's Day, and I had no chance of being in them…

The downfall of love: it hurts when you're alone.

I ignored the aching feeling I got as I heard a new voice enter the conversation. "What are you gonna do with your brother, Joe?" Biff asked, acting as if he didn't see me. Well, then again, they were in one hallway and I was in another, so chances were that they missed me completely.

The next words out of Joe's mouth stabbed my broken heart with a thousand knives.

"What brother?" The comment was followed by a laugh. I silently closed my locker, trying to stop the tears from falling.

In the end, I ate my lunch alone in the art room next to the window. Callie had friends to be with, and Diana was with Kate. I didn't know about the rest of the GSACA, but I assumed they were all prepping for their showcase. It worked out, because I didn't want anyone to see me crying. Pity would make it worse, as will the newest joke about "the crying gay kid."

I had composed myself to get through the rest of the day. Time passed with amazing speed, and the next thing I knew, I was waiting at the edge of the parking lot with my stuff, watching the other kids leave in groups.

"Frank! There you are!" Diana shouted, running over to me.

"You okay?" I asked as she stopped in front of me, gasping for breath.

"Kate got a threat today." She shoved the paper in front of me, the familiar bright red paper and lace standing out in the dull, winter scene.

I took it, and slowly opened it up. "'Hugs and kisses? How about strangles and stabs? Never yours, your Secret Killer.'"

"Kate thinks it's a prank, but I don't. The messages are getting worse. The one I got said 'I see the burning pits of Hell where you'll be in your eyes.'" Diana leaned against the building. "I don't know what to do anymore. The police would probably think I'm just paranoid, but this has to be more than a prank!"

"Anyone else you know getting these cards?" I asked.

"Greg, Ron, Terrance, Troy, and Stacy."

"Have they told anyone about this?"

"No. I'm the only idiot who needed the police to calm me down." Diana rolled her eyes. "They don't even think the threat is real!"

"Do you guys hang out a lot together?"

"Not really. Stacy is always competitive about her grades, and prefers to 'work alone.'" She made quotation marks in the air. "Greg and Terrance are always doing some sport, and Troy and Ron are in the library twenty four seven."

This made no sense already. If I had learned one thing, it was that the victims or targets had a connection that pissed the murderer or attempted murderer off. Already it sounded like they had very little in common besides having some brains.

"I'm gonna keep this card for… I guess we can call it evidence," I told Diana. "The police might be right, but something doesn't add up here with the whole prank idea."

"You mean besides the death threats?"

"Yeah." I thought for a second, before asking "Diana, did you guys make any enemies at all?"

"Um… yeah, now that you mention it. Greg pissed off some of the kids on the soccer team when he exposed them cheating in class. The kids were kicked off because of the 'no good grades, no sports' policy. Terrance is number one in the senior ranking, which annoys a lot of people since he's such a goof ball. I can't imagine Troy or Ron angering someone, but it could have happened. And Stacy gets people mad at her with her smart remarks."

"And yourself?"

"Besides the whole lesbian thing, I don't have a clue. I'll ask Kate, though. She can probably see my flaws."

"Okay." I mentally noted the list of people that could possibly want revenge of some sort. It was a giant list though, and I didn't have any specific names, which made it harder.

Diana read my mind. "That doesn't really help, doesn't it?"

"Well, at least we can narrow it down from the whole school to a giant bunch of kids."

"I'll keep asking-"

"Better not. We can't let whoever is doing this any hint that we're trying to stop them."

"Huh? Why?"

"They might attack someone if they felt that they are in danger."

"Oh, right!" Diana smacked herself in the forehead. "Rule of detecting, right?"

"Yeah." I smiled. "You'll catch on, though." Another thought crossed my mind. "Were you guys really close friends at one point or another, Diana?"

"Freshmen year, we were all best buds. After that, we separated. I can bring in my stuff to show you tomorrow."

"Okay. For now, go home. I'll try to examine the card."

"Alright. See ya!" She turned, and dashed away back into the building.

My eyes followed her before turning to the opposite direction. I started to walk home, the snow crunching under my feet. I thought back to the facts that I knew. Should I tell Diana about the gold and gems? She seemed trustworthy, and the more I tell her, the better the chance of her remembering something to help me. Then again, do I really want to pull her deeper into this case?

Another part of my mind drifted to something completely different. Did Joe really mean what he said earlier? That we were never brothers, just like that? After all the times we solved cases, saved each other's ass, and the very close encounters with death…

Can he really just forget it all?

The tears threatened to return to my eyes, so I began to stray from the main road. I cursed myself for not trying to get a ride, instead braving the elements with snow all around me.

That's how my heart felt, though. Cold and broken, like all the ice around me. Salt, shovels, not even the sun could help me anymore.

I was truly alone as I continued to walk.


	4. February 4

I still do not own anything except Ivy and Diana  
Please enjoy!

* * *

~Frank

I woke up to the quiet household, Joe's words replaying in my head over and over. I could escape the nightmares that were bound to come. The truth was harsh, and even a second of thought dedicated to it made my insides burn with sorrow and anger.

Maybe I should honor Joe's wish. Maybe I should let him disassociated himself from me. He already told people that I was of no relation to him. Wonder what would happen if I did the same.

There was a hidden reason for this too. I refused to acknowledge it, but it was down deep inside of me. The core of my actions, I guess.

You see, I still cared for my brother. Even after the sadness wore itself out and the anger took its place, I still cared for Joe. I was his older brother, after all. I didn't want to end up hindering him with my choices.

"Okay," I whispered to myself. "Today, I am no longer Joseph Hardy's older brother. I'm just Frank. Yeah…"

The beginning of the day sailed by after that. That is, until I bumped into Ivy and Callie before lunch.

"Do you hear what Joe is saying?" Ivy asked as she stood in front of my locker.

I answered back with "Is it really that important?"

"Frank, he's saying you two aren't brothers anymore!" Callie said, waiting to see my reaction.

"So?" The simple word startled the two, as they both stared at me with confusion controlling their facial features.

"'So?' That's it? Frank, that's wrong. You guys were like… well, brothers! Why don't you care?" Callie asked, giving my shoulder a little shake. "This is Joe and you we're talking about, not some other pair of brothers. You guys could be twins, with the bond you had before this!"

"Cal's right, Frank. I know you don't want to deal with this after what happened, but enough is enough." Ivy crossed her arms in both annoyance and anger. "Why are you letting him get away with this?"

"Because I don't have a brother." This time, my words shock the two. It took a few seconds before they could register what I had said, but when they did, it was not pretty.

"Frank! What is wrong with you?! How can you just let this go so easily?"

"Not cool, Frank. Joe has no right telling you all of this crap, and yet you're going along with it!"

"You guys… gals, I meant." I shook my head. "It doesn't matter to me anymore. Joe's right, for once in his life. It would be better for me to try and forget about him."

"Better for you, or for him?" Callie asked.

"Both, I guess. Just believe me, okay? It'll be better off this way."

The two girls eyed me suspiciously, before Ivy finally broke the silence. "I hope you know what you're doing Frank." With that, she turned and walked away.

Callie, on the other hand, just stared at me. "Frank, are you sure-"

"Positive, Cal."

"Okay, then…" Callie gave me a brief hug, before turning away. "Just be careful."

"Yeah…" I mumbled. A few minutes later, I was in the art room again. The tears came out silently, but I reasoned it would only take another day at max before I stopped crying over the loss of Joe completely.

I had finished wiping away what was left of the tears when Diana came into the room. "Hey, I thought I drop the stuff here so you can look at it."

"Thanks." I looked into her chocolate brown eyes. "Did you get another threat?"

"We all did. Kate's making fun of me for worrying, but she might be actually starting to believe me. And she also told me that I really have no enemies, if that helps narrow the list at all."

"Not by a lot, but it's still good to know." I took the scrapbook she held out towards me. It was a giant, square book with a black cover decorated with rhinestones and glitter. It felt very heavy, which made my hopes of finding something today go up a bit.

"Yeah. Hey… were you crying?"

"Huh?" Crap, she heard me earlier. "What are you talking about?"

"I thought I heard… Never mind. If you need any more info, you can call me later, okay?"

"Okay." Diana was just starting to walk out of the class when I made a hasty decision. "Diana, wait."

She turned back. "Yeah?"

"The gemstones on the cards… they're the real deal."

"Wait, you mean…"

"Yeah, they're real gems." I sighed, silently cursing myself for dragging Diana even deeper into this case. "I… had a friend check them out for me. He thinks the gold writing could possibly be real gold too."

"What? Why would someone spend so much for this?" Diana began to shake a little. "Is it like a psychopath or something?"

"I dunno. I mean, there are probably a lot of explanations-"

"Frank, just tell me the truth. I need to know if we're in danger or not."

I slowly nodded my head. "There is a great possibility that we are dealing with someone who's not fully sane."

"I knew it." She sat on one of the tables, her face buried in her head. "Frank, I don't want to get Kate dragged into this. I love her, and I want to protect her. Let me help you, please?"

"You've already help a great deal, Diana. I really don't want to put you in danger, though."

She gave a weak laugh. "Frank, whoever is behind this has already targeted me. I'm probably in more danger than you are. Might as well add on until my luck runs out."

"Diana-"

"Please, Frank. I can't stand the thought that someone might really try to kill us. I can't stand by the sidelines, either. Let me be your 'partner in crime.'"

"Not the best words to use, Diana."

"Yeah, I figured. But I don't know what else to say, especially…" She looked up into my eyes, her face stuck in a sad expression. "I just can't let anyone get hurt. It's been my goal in life to help people, and this might be a good place to start."

After a few moments where silence was passed in between us, I said "Okay, Diana. I really hate to do this, but Valentine's Day is next Saturday. That gives us a little more than a week. I really have no leads at the moment, so I don't know how I'll do this without your help."

"Alright. Thanks, Frank." Diana pushed herself off of the table. "Should we tell the others about this, though?"

"Yes. The sooner they know, the better they can prepare."

"For what?"

"At this point, anything."

Diana nodded. "So, no fingerprints found on the card I gave you?"

I shook my head. "A criminal mastermind in the making, I guess."

"Yeah. See ya, Frank." She gave a little wave, and left as quickly as she had entered.

I sighed. What have I done? She was getting dragged deeper in this whole case. I had a feeling that, before long, she would become someone the mastermind of this whole thing would have to kill.

I opened the first page of the scrapbook, and read the words "Best Friends" in bright, colorful paper. A picture of the original six targets was pasted underneath, all of them grinning and hugging each other.

I couldn't help but wonder about my own friends. Chet, Biff, Phil… and Joe. Joe was like my best friend and brother before this whole thing.

What now? Am I doomed to be alone for the rest of my life? Will I always be deprived of the friendships that had once laid the foundation to my very existence?

The jokes that shot at me like arrows no longer stung. They just hurt, before I rolled my eyes at the childishness that everyone was displaying around me. It was all stupid. But still, it tore away at me. Maybe I lied to myself before. Maybe I would end up crying again, silently screaming at the cruel world.

I passed Joe before he left to get a ride from Biff. Once again, our eyes met. We hadn't talked to each other since Saturday. It was now Wednesday, four whole days later. His eyes had softened since Monday, but I could still see the ice behind the blue color some people were so fond of.

He mumbled a single word. "Bro."

In return, I looked at him in shock. He's been telling everyone that I was not related to him, and he turns around and calls me "bro"?

"I have no brother." I saw the shock register on his face before I walked away. The scrapbook weighed me down a bit as I traveled through the halls.

Was I sorry for what I had said? I didn't think so. But maybe I was, as I walked home again with a few tears falling to join the ice that had froze my heart.


	5. February 5

Joe gets a chapter for once.  
I still do not own anything except for Diana and Ivy.  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Joe

Did Frank have the right to say that we weren't brothers? The question bothered me the whole night. A debate went on in my head until I had been able to fall asleep.

Frank was supposed to be the level headed one. He was not the Hardy that said mean things to others in their face, even if they really pissed him off. So why am I the special one? What right did he have to say in my face that we weren't brothers anymore?

Then I remembered what I had told the group on Tuesday. I wanted to go back in time and kick myself. I had thought Frank wasn't going to ever hear what I had said that moment, but somehow he found out. And I deserve this, I guess.

But I want to talk to him. I wanted to actually talk and get things straightened out. We haven't been very close since I left ATAC…

Why did I leave ATAC anyways? The reasons I gave to Q and Dad seemed so empty now…

I gotta fix this mess. I'm not sure how much longer I can stand not talking to my brother. Hell, how could I live without fighting crime either? I gotta fix that as well… Maybe I can get Dad to do that for me…

But first thing first. I had to talk to Frank.

If Frank is actually related to me, then I know he isn't much of a morning person. I know I wasn't. But I put in the effort to wake up half an hour earlier than usual. I quietly walked into Frank's room.

The first thing I saw was a scrapbook, and out of curiosity I decided to open it up. I really hoped by brother hadn't gone crazy and started to stalk me. (Believe me, it happens. There was a case that we solved last year that involved a crazy stalker who… never mind. That's not part of the story.) I was slightly relieved that it was it was not me in the pictures, but was puzzled. Why would Frank have pictures of the top six seniors of the school?

"Get out, Joe." I turned around and met my brother's brown eyes.

"Um… morning to you too." My brain was still a bit sleepy, so I couldn't think of anything else to say at the moment.

"What do you want?" he asked, going back under the blankets, turning towards the wall.

"To talk. Please." I walked over to the bed, and gave Frank a little shove. "Can I, since I made the effort to wake up half an hour earlier?"

"So you could torture me, right?"

"Frank, please."

Frank let out a big sigh, and turned over. "What?"

"I'm sorry. For everything."

"Great. Did you have to wake me up to tell me that?"

"Yes, I did!" Now my brother was being… well, for a lack of better words, a bitch. "Look, I know that you are probably pissed at me-"

"I am pissed at you."

"Thank you for clearing that up." I shook my head. "Can you at least attempt to hear me out?"

Frank nodded, so I continued. "I know it was probably the worse thing to try and avoid you after you got up all that courage to tell us that you are gay. It was a really bad judgment to tell Chet, who has the biggest mouth in Bayport. And I overhauled when I said you weren't my brother. So… I'm really sorry, and I can't blame you if you want to kill me right now."

"Well, you got one thing right. I really, really want to strangle you at the moment."

"That's great. You know what? I'll let you get back to sleep." I failed big time. I knew I sucked at the whole apologizing business, but this is one of the times in really counted, and I really screwed up. I got up to leave.

"Wait." Frank grabbed my wrist.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you say it in the first place?"

I didn't need to ask what "it" was. "I dunno. I guess I thought I would seem cooler by not hanging around you. Boost my image or something, since that's what I focused on for the past month."

"The reason why you left ATAC."

"Which I am going to fix the second I can talk to Dad alone."

For the first time this week, my brother's eyes showed another emotion besides sadness or hatred. "You want to come back?"

"Let's face it, my life isn't complete without me screaming 'I'm gonna die!' everyday, now is it?"

As usual, my brother didn't smile at my joke. "I already have a new partner."

This was surprising. Frank moved on without me? Since when? "Well, I guess I have to put an ad in the newspaper. 'Looking for person under the age of eighteen to serve in secret organization of crime fighting teens my father started. Please send your applications to the Hardy house.'"

"I didn't mean I was gonna kick you to the curb."

"Well, replacing me doesn't leave many options, anyways."

Frank sighed. "I'll talk to him. We can probably manage a small team, if you will."

"Serious?"

"No, I'm talking in my sleep."

"That wasn't really funny."

"You expect me to be funny when I really should be asleep right now?"

"Good point." I sighed. "What's with the scrapbook, anyways?"

"I'm looking for clues."

"Mission?"

"An annoying one, yes." Frank took a few minutes to explain the whole case to me. "What I don't get is why them? There's really no connection, unless you count all of them being BFFs in freshmen year."

"Maybe they ganged up and bullied someone. It would make more sense than a single enemy targeting all of them," I pointed out. "Or… have you considered one of them is the person behind it?"

Frank shook his head. "The only one I really know is Diana, and that doesn't really help. She's supposed to get them to all come over to the library tomorrow so we can warn them. According to her, they think it's a joke."

"It's not a funny joke."

"That's what I thought. We have a psychopath in school."

"It could be Diana. You know, shake things up by getting you involved to make the others actually see that she's not playing around."

"Why didn't I see that?" Frank flopped his head back onto the pillow.

"Because you didn't have to think for two people then?" I said. "I'm the action Hardy, remember?"

"And I was the brainy one." My brother smiled, the first time I had seen in a while.

"How about this; at lunch, we'll go to the broken bathroom to talk it over, so no one can overhear-"

"The art room is better."

"The art room? That's where you've been at lunch?"

Frank shrugged. "I thought no one would realize I was missing."

"Well, I did. I just didn't say anything," I admitted.

"Okay, we'll meet in the art room at lunch, and try to figure this all out."

"Sounds like a plan, Frank." I got up to head back to my room, but stopped when I reached the doorway. "Frank?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm still sorry."

He gave a dramatic sigh in response. "Stop apologizing. I need my partner back for the case."

I smiled.

------------------

The day went by quickly. I avoid practically everyone since they all were still teasing my brother. Now I have this giant urge to find Chet and beat him up for telling everyone…

Both of us failed to come up with any new ideas at lunch. I figured it was because we really didn't know anyone who is involved in the case. We did end up talking about this weird story involving the video production class, though. Apparently, they ordered prop guns for some project, and the teacher got really pissed when he found out there were real bullets inside. He went through a whole lot of trouble (not to mention paperwork) to discover that some idiot put real bullets in there.

It was the end of the day before I saw my brother again. He was clutching a piece of paper as he headed towards his locker.

"What's that?" I asked as he began to turn the combination lock.

"My other partner hacked into the school's database." Frank pointed at the lock. "You know how they assign us locks for the lockers?"

"So they could piss us off and get into our stuff when we're sick or something?"

"Yeah. Well, I asked him to get the combinations for the seven targets and any unused lockers."

"You think they're stuffing the stuff in their? Brilliant," I said. "What about the jeweler stuff?"

"Still no clue. He says that he might have an answer tomorrow." Frank pulled open the metal door, and froze. I looked inside, and saw a small, black jewelry box inside.

"Your partner doesn't send you stuff through jewelry boxes, does he?" I asked.

Frank shook his head as he pulled it out. He opened it, and we both stared at the ring inside. It was a diamond ring that had been styled for a man. I already had a bad feeling that it was a twenty four karat, grade A diamond ring.

Frank took the small piece of paper stuck in the top part of the box, and unfolded it.

_"Frank, will you please die for me?"_


	6. February 6

Thanks for all of the support for this story! I'm glad you guys like it!  
Still don't own the Hardy Boys, though...  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Frank

I woke up once again to Joe waking me up half an hour earlier than usual.

"What's up?" I mumbled.

"Can we just… well, talk?"

"Talk? Can't we talk when we're actually awake?" I turned over, only to have Joe push me until I banged my head. "Ouch!"

"Sorry!" Joe let go before using a hand to comb through his hair. "I just want to talk before we find out if we're screaming our heads off or not."

"Okay…" The ring had freaked both of us out, especially when we did a little research and found out it was a top quality ring.

"I want to ask when you found out."

"Found out what?"

"That you were… you know…"

"Gay?" Joe nodded, and I sighed in response. "Why do you need to know?"

"Because this whole thing was from you telling us. I'm still freaked out about it. I mean, we were always looking at _girls_, not guys. It's gonna be weird now."

"Why do you think I waited till now to tell you?"

"What do you mean, 'now'?"

Crap. I forgot I hadn't told him everything yet. "I figured out I was gay in October."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me then?!"

"Because I was scared!" I hissed. "Because I didn't know how you would react to the news! Because I wasn't even sure myself if I was gay or not!"

Joe did not look me directly in the eye when he asked "When _did_ you realize you were gay?"

"I talked to people. Ivy, mostly. She took me through this whole 'spiritual journey' thing."

Joe laughed. "Yeah, Ivy can do that to you sometimes. She's in some of my classes, and boy, does she scare people."

"Yeah, well, if I want to blame anyone, it's her."

"You can't really blame someone for turning gay, Frank."

"But if I _did_ blame someone…"

"So... do you like anyone?"

The question hung in the air as I thought it over. Did Joe really want to hear about Phil? More importantly, did I want to tell him?

It must have shown on my face, because my brother quickly said "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I mean, since I'm still trying to get the whole 'my brother's gay' thing."

"Yeah…" I slowly realize not everything was back to normal, like I thought it was yesterday. It would take some time before we could even be close to that. "Did you talk to Dad yet?"

"Yep. He did the whole 'I'm happy for you, but you're gonna be screaming your head off soon' act."

"Why do you keep saying 'screaming your head off'?"

"Because sooner or later, someone tries to kill us."

"That's not- Okay, maybe it is true."

"Exactly!" Joe threw up his hands. "It's like what Aunt Trudy says; we attract trouble!"

"'We'? If I remember correctly, _you're_ the impulsive one."

"And your smart plans fail."

I shook my head. "Only because you-"

"Because I'm the better looking one?"

"You wish!" I quickly put my brother in a headlock. "I'm the better looking one!"

"No way, bro! I am so _handsomer_."

"Is that even a word?"

"It is now!" My brother managed to escape, and a few minutes later we were wrestling when Mom came in.

She sighed the second she saw us. "I'm glad you two aren't fighting anymore, but do you really have to wrestle in the house?"

"Mom, it's below freezing out there! Think of all the sicknesses we could get! And then Aunt Trudy would come back and torture us with _lectures_!" my brother exclaimed.

Our mother rolled her eyes. "Well, just try not to break anything. And you both have school soon, so I better see you two ready!"

"Yes, Mom," we said in unison. As she left, we looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

-------------

The school day went by very quickly, even for a Friday. But after school, I had to meet all the people getting threats in the library.

I didn't receive a threat today, to my amazement. When I told Joe, he told me it was probably because one of the substitutes that came in today was teaching in the room near my locker, and had been known for being paranoid. "The person probably couldn't get near your locker without anyone around because the woman keeps looking out the door, thinking the ghouls are after her!"

"That's good, I guess…" We walked towards the library. "How things going between you and Iola?"

Joe sighed. "You mean _Andrew_ and Iola."

"Andrew got to her first?"

"No. Andrew kidnapped her by sweeping her off her feet right in front of me!" Joe shook his head. "The gang thinks that's why I've been avoiding them all today."

"And why are you avoiding them in the first place?"

"They're still cracking jokes about you. I just… I can't be around them, that's all."

I could hear Joe's sadness in his voice. I put an arm for comfort around his shoulder. "You shouldn't worry about me."

"If I don't, who will?"

I didn't know how to answer that, so instead I said "Thanks."

The rest of our walk to the library was done in silence. When we arrived, I saw Diana with the other six at a back table. She saw me, and waved us over.

"You guys, this is Frank. Frank, these are Greg, Terrance, Stacy, Ron, Troy, and Kate."

"And who are you?" Stacy asked, point at Joe.

Joe opened his mouth to answer, but I cut him off. "He's my brother, Joe." I had a feeling he would say something to downgrade himself, as a way to apologize to me. It wasn't necessary, and right now we needed to focus on the case.

Troy looked at me with a sort of blank stare on his face. "Why are you bothering with this? It's a joke."

I sighed. Might as well be blunt to them and give them the facts. "The gems and gold on there are real."

"What?" Terrance exclaimed. "That's… insane, man!"

"I know. That's why I'm worried about all of this. I've seen some of my dad's previous cases, and usually this kind of work was one of a psychopath's." I noticed Joe leave the table, taking out his cell phone. "Joe, what's up?"

"Got a text from Dad. Apparently…" Joe opened his phone, and read the words on the screen. "There's a guy from school who stole from a jeweler and used the gems to send cards out to kids he hated with threats attached. The police picked him up an hour ago."

"What?" That's it? The case was over with?

"Yeah. Dude's name was Richard Waver."

"Hey, I know him!" Stacy exclaimed. "We had this giant argument in freshmen year, remember?" she asked the rest of the group.

"Yup. That means this whole thing was pointless. Well, I'm outta here." Greg picked up his bag, and patted me on the shoulder. "Thanks for at least trying." He left, and the rest of the group dispersed.

Diana was the only one who stayed behind. "Wow. Looks like we did make a big deal out of nothing. Sorry for dragging you into this, Frank." She smiled, before following Kate out of the library.

Joe took Diana's seat. "I hate to say it, but it seems like this case is over-"

"I'm not so sure, Joe."

Joe looked at me in shock. "What do you mean? They got the bad guy-"

"Joe, I got a threat, remember? And I don't know the kid at all."

My brother eyes widened. "I just realized, he's in some of my classes! The first thing he told me on Monday was to tell you that he hoped things work out for you!"

"He did?" I frowned. "You decided not to tell me?"

"It slipped my mind, okay? I was trying to talk to Iola!" Joe shook his head. "Not the point, though. The text was from... you know."

"I get the point. What didn't you tell me?"

"They closed the case. They think it's over with!"

"Not good," I mumbled. "What do we do now?"

"Ask Dad?"

I closed my eyes, and slowly breathed in. "Joe, haven't you realized I haven't spoken to Dad since Saturday night?"

"Wait, what?!" Joe exclaimed (it was soft enough to go unnoticed by the librarians, but loud enough to seem like an exclamation). "I thought he was okay with you being gay and all!"

I gave a small laugh. "Yeah, if 'okay' counted as ignoring and avoiding me."

"Frank, it's wrong."

"So are a lot of things in the world, Joe. Truth be told, I really kinda worried about you more than him."

"Really?"

"At the moment, my partner was way more important that my mentor," I half lied. See, I did miss my dad. Now that Joe's back in my life, I crave my dad's opinions and approval. I wanted Dad to worry over me like before, always giving a lecture of some sort before I headed off into a mission.

My father was probably the last thing I had to win back before I would truly be at peace.

"How about this; we take the day off tomorrow and go to the mall. Do some shopping, find a date for Valentine's Day, and all that good stuff. If something does develop with the case, it falls on the police's hands. Not ours. Got it?"

I stared at Joe. "Since when were you so willing to back off a case?"

"Since the people we're supposed to save seem like a bunch of assholes who think that we are childish detectives. And since the police we have here in Bayport are all idiots with giant egos, considering the new guys on the force are assholes as well. And because it's been a very crappy week." Joe got up. "So for one day, we will have a break. If anything develops, the headquarters have our number and address."

I thought it over for a second. A break would do us both good, considering we didn't have an ideal week…

"Sure. Just don't drag me to any movies you want to see." I got up, and grabbed my bag near my seat.

"You're just jealous I have better taste than you," Joe said, smiling. "But fine, if you want to not see the best movie of the year…"

"There aren't any kiddie movies out, Joe."

"Hey!" Joe punched me in the arm, and I returned the favor before noticing something sticking out in my bag. "What's this?"

We stopped as I put my bag on the ground, and pulled out what appeared to be a handkerchief.

"Isn't that the one the drama club used in the play? The 'token of gratitude' or something?" Joe asked, looking over my shoulder.

I nodded before pulling it out all the way. The scarlet stained startled us both as I held it up. "Do you think…"

"This case might not be closed after all…" Joe finished, as we both stared at the red stain that looked very similar to blood.

* * *

According to my computer, _handsomer_ is a word. Never knew that until now, either... It always sounded weird to me. *shrugs*


	7. February 7

Halfway there!  
Still do not own the Hardy Boys  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Joe

The tension in the house was very, very thick. Frank and I were basically against our father on two giant issues.

1) We found out from one of the compute geeks at ATAC that our father was the one who ordered the case to be closed. For some reason, he is hell-bent on making us believe that the kid who was caught was the one who committed the crime that we were supposed to stop.

2) There's still the whole "Frank being gay" issue. I always thought our dad was more open minded than this, but I guess every guy has his flaws.

In basic terms, we weren't all that happy to stay in the house.

Good to my promise, I dragged Frank out of the house to the mall. My first mistake, however, was going to Mr. Pizza.

Chet, Biff, Phil, Callie, Iola, and Andrew were all there, but not exactly together. Iola and Andrew were off in a corner whispering to each other (and just to note, I did suppress the feeling to go over there and punch Andrew in the face). Callie was alone in the other corner, near the table that Chet, Biff, and Phil occupied.

When we got near the table, Phil got up and walked over to my brother. "Can we talk?" Frank nodded and followed Phil out of the restaurant, when I realized the other two were laughing.

"What did you guys do?" I asked.

Biff tried to look innocent. "We kinda dared Phil to… Just watch." He pointed out the window that looked into the mall, where Phil and Frank were standing.

I watched in horror as Phil leaned down to kiss my brother, and seconds later pull back and saying something to Frank with a look of amusement on his face. The kind of amusement that people getting when others are hurt. And my brother looked like he shattered into a million pieces before turning away and walking towards the food court, Phil steps behind.

"The hell?!" I said, turning to the two at the table. "What the hell happened?"

"We dared Phil yesterday to kiss Frank, then break his heart," Chet explained.

"You what?!" I pounded my fist on the table, causing other people to look up and stare at the area we were in.

I wasn't the only one who heard about the prank. In an instant, Callie had gotten up from her table, soda in hand. She then proceeded to pour the remains of her giant cup of soda over both Chet and Biff.

"Callie! Why did you do that?!" Biff exclaimed, trying to get some napkins to get rid of some of the sugar water.

"You two are the biggest assholes I have ever seen, and you are both in deep shit if I ever hear about you two doing some shit like this again." The three of us stared at Callie. I'm almost positive I was dreaming, because Callie was one of those people that would never swear. Except then I realized I was awake when she dragged me by the arm out of the pizza place.

"Callie, you're gonna leave a bruise," I said, trying to escape her grasp. She suddenly let go, and turned to meet my eyes.

"I'm gonna find Phil right now and beat the living Hell out of him. Are you gonna help or not?"

"Callie, stop swearing. It sounds wrong." I shook my head. "Besides, I want to find Frank first. Then we can do the whole angry mob thing, okay?"

She blinked a few times while registering my words. "Good point. And do I really sound weird swearing?"

"Is Frank gay?"

"I hate you sometimes, do you know that?"

I smiled in response. "I'm just surprised you haven't slugged me yet."

"Frank told me how you guys 'patch some of the problem up.' Then he told me not to kill you, no matter how bad of a feeling I had to do so."

"Well, that's a relief. I thought you were gonna drag me into an dark alley and do me in," I joked, following her to the food court.

"I just might, Hardy. I just might." We scanned the crowds, looking for any sign of Frank (or Phil, in Callie's case).

Our search would have completely failed, if not for the second glance I did of the tables. "Hey, there they are!"

"'They'?"

"Yeah, they're at a table together," I said, pointing to the far side of the food court. "Come on!"

The fact that the two were sitting together didn't completely register in my mind until Callie dragged me behind one of the pillars that was randomly placed in the mall for the overall "design."

"Ow! Callie!"

"Shh! Look." She pointed to the two, and I could see why she wanted to observe them first. The two were talking in a civil manner, without any tears or laughing in the other's face very rudely. They were just… talking and laughing.

"What? Weren't they pretty much enemies, like five minutes ago?" I asked. Callie nodded in agreement, before we turned to find _Phil taking a spoonful of ice cream from the dish on the table and feeding it to Frank._

"What the hell?!" I stared in amazement as Frank smiled. (And possibly laughed/giggled. I can't really tell the difference between the two sometimes.)

"Something's definitely going on." Callie frowned as she walked up to the two, with my being dragged along. (And just for future reference, the chick is crazy and strong. Not a good combination that you want to deal with.) "Okay, what is up?"

No intro, no regret, no nothing in Callie's voice. The two looked up at Callie in shock, and then Frank's mind probably clicked with all the pieces of the puzzle he had left for Callie and me to solve.

"It's a long story…"

"We got time, right Joe?"

"Depends. Can you let go of my arm so I don't need to go to a hospital?" I pleaded. She let go, and I noticed red marks on my arm. "Well, there's gonna be bruises tomorrow."

Phil beckoned us to take the other two seats, as my brother sighed. "Remember how I told you I found out about me being gay in October, Joe?"

"Yeah. It's all Ivy's fault," I said jokingly.

"Well… Ivy put me on a blind date with Phil…"

"Wait. You're gay too?" Callie asked, turning to the genius.

Phil shrugged in response. "No one ever asked me before, so I never really told anyone."

"And well… it kinda clicked after that." Frank began to blush a very deep red. I couldn't help but laugh.

"So you two have been dating this whole time, and it never crossed either of your minds to tell one of us?" Callie asked, frowning.

Phil gave a dramatic sigh. "Frank made me swear not to tell anyone because he was trying to be all protecting so that I wouldn't suffer what he had to. One full week of pretending kinda pissed me off, so when Chet and Biff told me the dare, I was more than happy to agree. Then I called Frank last night and told him the whole thing, and we came up with the plan."

"And forgot to tell us in the process," I pointed out.

Frank cringed a bit. "Sorry?"

"And Callie was gonna kill you, Phil," I said. "Now she has all this pent up energy to let loose on someone. And most likely, it's gonna be me."

"Nope." We turned and looked at the only girl at the table. "I still have Chet and Biff to go after, so I might as well get it over with." She stood up with a smile plastered on her face. "If the two are missing Monday morning, you know what happened to them."

With a cheerful grin and a wave, she left.

"Damn, that girl scares me. She started swearing her head off when she thought you tried to hurt Frank," I said to Phil.

"Makes me glad I'm gay sometimes." He looked at my brother with… well, I guess you could call them "lovesick puppy dog eyes."

"Ew! New rule; no public affections in public!"

"That wasn't at all redundant, Joe."

"I try."

A loud ring then filled the air, and Frank pulled out his cell phone. He looked briefly at the caller ID, before flipping his phone open. "Hello?"

A few seconds later he hung up, a grim expression on his face.

"What's up?" I asked, not sure what to expect.

"Diana just called. Apparently, Greg's been missing since seven o'clock yesterday after playing basketball with some friends at one of the community colleges. And the police reported that a giant red paper heart was found on his stuff with the words 'His corpse holds beauty like no other' written on it in gold."


	8. February 8

I've been sick the past few days, so I'm kind of behind. I'll try to catch up tomorrow.  
Still don't own the Hrady Boys  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Frank

"Don't beat yourself up, Frank. It's not your fault that Greg's been kidnapped," Joe insisted, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Besides, you're scaring all of us. You never slept in late till eleven before."

"Joe, I should have told ATAC not to close the case. I should have said that there was someone else behind the crime!" I said, turning over to face the wall.

"You heard the intels at ATAC. They said Dad closed the case. Dad, as in the founder and greatest detective of all time. Even though we are his sons, I doubt our say has anything compared to his."

"Don't you feel a bit responsible for this, Joe?"

"Truthfully, yes. But remember what I said Friday? If anything develops, it's on the hands of the police and Dad. Not us."

I gave a small chuckle. "Wish I could pound that into my head."

"Why don't I call Phil and-"

In one swift motion, I took the pillow my head was on, sat up, and smacked my brother in the head with it.

"Ow!" Joe tried to wrestle the pillow out of my grasp. "Give it!"

"No way!" We continued to fight over it for a few more moments, when Mom came into my room.

"Don't destroy the pillow, boys. I don't want your aunt to come back home and begin scolding you about it," she warned us. "And Frank, now that you're up, you should get something to eat. Skipping a meal is not good for people's diets, you know."

"Yes, Mom." As she left, I pushed Joe off of my bed onto the floor. "Get out, Joe!"

"Fine, fine. Geez…" Joe left my room, closing the door behind him.

As I headed towards the closet to find something to wear, I spotted a picture on my desk. It had been taken years ago, when Joe and I were still in elementary school. We were with our parents on a fishing trip in a cabin a few hours from here. During the trip, Joe had managed to fall out of the boat a few times before finally being able to catch a fish, which turned out to be bigger than the one I had caught. The best memory of that trip was the evil idea Joe and I had to push our father out of the boat. We had to wait a whole day before our father would stand up, because we couldn't manage to move him when he sat down. In the end, we got him, which resulted in us laughing hysterically before getting pulled into the water ourselves.

We were all smiling in the picture, and just looking at it made me want to laugh at my naïve self. Back then, I didn't know what Hell my life would become. I didn't know how my friends would play cruel jokes on me, or how my own father would reject me. All I knew was that life was grand, and that I would become a great detective.

I took the frame, and placed it face down on my desk. I didn't want to look at the picture again any time soon.

----------

The police had called Dad, Joe, and me down to the station, claiming they found Greg's body. We sat in the car in silence, Dad behind the wheel while Joe and I sat in the back.

Right before we pulled up to the station, Dad finally said something. "Boys, if this trip proves something else is going on, I'll open the case back up, okay?"

"Yeah," Joe mumbled as I nodded my head. We both knew this was kind of like Dad's way of apologizing to us, but it still sounded hollow in my ears.

Chief Collig was at the front door ready to greet us. "We found Greg's body a few hours ago. There are multiple stab wounds all over, and a gunshot to his head. We also found something that you might find interesting."

He led us into the building, where we followed him into a room. A body laid on the table, covered by a white sheet. I pointed to it. "Is that…"

"Yes." The chief pulled back the cloth, revealing Greg with stab wounds all over his chest and arms. He had been shot in thee side of the head. Even looking at it briefly made me feel really sick.

"We found him in the woods not far from his house. A couple reported seeing a body in the snow, so we checked it out to find this. We're estimating his time of death to be more than twenty four hours ago, probably forty eight at max," the chief explained. He led us over to another table, where a red paper heart was. "This was found next to him."

Joe looked at it, then read "'His screams were music to my ears.'"

"Any suspects?" Dad asked the chief.

"None. We cleared the other kid, since he was in custody while the murder happened." Chief Collig shook his head. "We don't have an idea about a motive, either. We understand that there are others who have been receiving threats, including you Frank."

I nodded my head as my father looked at me in shock. Joe and I had decided not to tell our father about it, but ATAC found out, which led to the chief knowing.

"Can you think of anything that would be the reason for this, Frank?"

I thought for a second, before responding "No. They used to be friends in freshmen year, but besides that there's nothing connecting the group."

The chief nodded grimly. "I'm going to call the other potential victims and warn them. Frank, don't walk around alone, and try to stay in a lot of public places. I doubt the murderer will try to kidnap you in front of many people.

I nodded.

We left the station a few minutes later. My mind was reeling in what we had just learned. Our little harasser had upgraded themselves straight to murderer.

Dad seemed a bit upset as we went into the car. "Frank, why didn't you tell me?"

"Dad, we hadn't talked since my big announcement. That was last Sunday. A full freakin' week without getting some sign of encouragement or even acceptance, and you expect me to tell you that I was threatened?!" My anger that I had bottled up finally came out with my words. It startled Joe and Dad, though, considering I was the one who was supposed to be "level headed" and all.

"Frank, chill," my brother hissed at me.

"Why should I?" I answered back, slumping in my seat. "I can't find myself telling a guy who probably hates my guts 'Hey, I got threatened by someone who most likely will turn into a murderer!'"

"Frank!" I didn't bother to look at my father when he called out my name. Instead, I looked out the window at the houses with snow covering them. "Frank, I understand why you're probably angry at me-"

"I _am_ angry at you," I corrected.

"Right, well… It's hard for me to understand sometimes. I was used to a son who stared at girls almost everyday, and now that you told us that you like men, it's going to take some time fore me to digest the information."

"You still got Joe staring at girls twenty four/seven," I reminded my father.

"Hey!" Joe pouted. "I don't look at girls that often!"

"Oh, right. Twelve/seven, since the only other thing you do is sleep."

"Hey!" Joe punched me in the arm.

"That's not the point, is it?" Dad asked, ending the play argument between Joe and myself. "The problem is that I'm taking too long to understand the whole situation, and you sprung it on us without intro."

"Sorry for not knowing I needed to write an essay or something going over the reasons for why I'm gay," I mumbled.

"Dad, it's more your fault for not understanding. Frank's been gay since October," my brother said. I shot him a look, which he ignored completely as he continued. "I did the same thing as you, and I almost lost my brother. Think this whole thing over. Ask Mom for some info. You probably married a research librarian for this, right?"

Dad thought it over for a few moments, before finally saying "I'll try. It might take your old man a while, but I'll try to keep up with you youngsters, okay?"

Instead of answering his question, Joe turned to me and said "Remember those pictures we saw of Dad when he was younger? Head full of hair…" I couldn't help but laugh at the thought of this.

Our father, on the other hand, cringed. "Must you remind me of the receding hairline?"

Joe and I exchanged a look before bursting out with laughter.

----------

"Yeah, Joe told my dad. Except he only mentioned when I found out, not about you," I said into the phone to Phil.

_"Sounds like loads of fun. You freaked out about the threats?"_

"Yes. It's been a week, and I still don't have one piece of solid evidence. That leaves me with a week until Valentine's Day, and who knows what'll happen then."

_"Except you know that it has to be one of the targets, right?"_

"Huh?"

_"The handkerchief wasn't seen until you left the library. That means one of the targets must have put it in your bag before they left, as a warning symbol or something."_

I smacked myself in the forehead. "How come I didn't think of that?"

_"You probably did, but forgot about it when everyone blamed the other kid. That probably played right into their hands, too. Everyone drops their guards, so they could kidnap Greg and kill him."_

"Right." The image of Greg's corpse flashed through my mind, making me mentally shake. "So, anything interesting happen to you today?"

_"Callie sent me an interesting email. She said something along the lines of 'Break Frank's heart and you'll die.' It took me quite a while to convince her I wouldn't do that in a million years."_

"Love you too, Phil. Did she say anything about Chet and Biff?"

_"She implied that they are in a ditch on the outskirts of town. She is a violent girl sometimes."_

"Yeah. Joe actually has bruises from yesterday."

_"Violent and strong. Not a good combo sometimes. Which reminds me, I looked into the files of the targets to try to find something, and got a whole bunch of info."_

"Anything good?"

_"Stacy went to a psychologist during her sophomore years, and started going again the beginning of this school year. Terrance had been noted for being 'extremely lazy' and the guidance councilor thinks that because of that, he might not get into an Ivy League school, despite being number one and all. Diana destroyed public property once after having anger issues in her freshmen year. Troy and Ron are observed as bookworms with no friends, and are very competitive. Kate used to be popular, but dropped away from it after discovering that she was a lesbian."_

"Wow. Can you send me all this?"

_"Yup. I'm gonna try to access their other files too, as well as Greg's. Hope you find something useful."_

"I hope so too. I don't want another person to end up dead."


	9. February 9

Still not owning the Hardy Boys.  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Joe

"Anything useful?" I asked my brother, scaring the crap out of him. It wasn't like he wasn't asking for it, though. I had woken up to hear him furiously typing away at his computer in the room next to mine. He better have a good reason for interrupting my sleep.

Frank regained his composure before turning back to the screen. "Phil sent me some files on the targets."

"So you agree with my theory that it's one of them who started this?"

"Yeah. The question is, which one is the murderer?"

"Which is why you're-" I looked at the monitor. "The hell? What language is that? I thought you said these were files, not notes for some class."

"I had a security thing installed on my email. Anything sent to me is automatically translated into another language," Frank explained. "That way, no one can tamper with my stuff."

"Two major holes in your idea, bro. One, that means _I_ can't read your notes. And now that you told me the whole technique thing, brings me the other problem of the online translator people tend to find on the web."

"The letters are given a different language. Remember, I've been in four different language courses, plus a bunch of others I studied for fun."

"Yeah, 'for fun.' You are really a giant nerd."

"Has there ever been a time where being a nerd puts a person at a disadvantage?"

"Socially, yes. But then the little nerds become powerful CEOs."

"Exactly."

I sighed, admitting defeat. "So, anything good?"

"Diana had some anger management issues during her freshman year."

"Really? Never saw her as the type to destroy things. More of the worrier kind."

"Well, apparently, she was having a breakdown at the community center and took a chair and sent it flying into a window."

"Wow. How come I don't remember seeing this on the news?" I thought about it for a second, seeing if I remembered hearing anything about a girl throwing a chair into a giant glass window.

"She somehow got a deal, where she would accept a whole bunch of community hours as long as the police kept quiet about it."

"What, the people who saw her smashing the window just let slip by?"

"She did it at twelve at night. Most people don't go to the gym then, and even if they did they would have though it was a vandal, not a crazed girl."

"Okay, so she's bumped up the suspect list, even though I can't think of a motive. Unless… She did it in freshman year?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe she told her friends, and now she wants them dead to keep her secret safe."

"And why drag me into it?" Frank asked.

"Maybe it was like I said earlier. She would try to convince the others that it's an actual threat, so she could scare them. But she might have thought you were getting to close to her, and you might have found out, considering our connections to the police and all."

"True, true…" Frank leaned back in his chair. "I dunno, though…"

"Well, who else do we have?"

"I only had time to translate Terrance's file as well as Diana's. He didn't really do much, except his guidance councilor thinks that might be the deciding factor for him not getting into an Ivy League school."

"But he's at the top of the school!"

"But colleges also look at how well a kid can balance a busy life. And it's too late for him to change, since the applications were all due in December."

"So, he jealous of his friends for doing better, then goes off to kill them?"

"Doesn't make much sense, does it?"

"Since when did murder ever make sense?"

"Good point." Frank closed out of his email. "We better get ready for school."

"And more threats."

He sighed. "Thanks for reminding me."

-----------

I don't know whether school just happened to have a fast forward button in use or if death threats made time unimportant, but the school day went by as fast as it had last week. Before I knew it, I was waiting for my brother to show up in front of his locker.

As I waited for what seemed like forever (which was probably only a few minutes in reality), Chet came by, and suddenly stopped when he saw me.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, curiosity controlling his actions.

I rolled my eyes. "Waiting for my brother, what else?"

"Didn't you say you didn't have a brother?"

Oh, right. That. "I lied. I have an awesome brother named Frank Hardy."

"Yeah, who's _gay_."

"Who is also my brother. I think that right there should outweigh his preferences." I looked away from Chet. "What if Iola told you she was a lesbian?"

"What?! She is not?"

"I said 'What if?' You know it's not true, seeing how she's been exchanging spit with Andrew now."

I'll admit, it hurts to say something so untrue about a girl I had a giant crush on less than a week ago. But she did kinda trample my heart when she went with Andrew.

Besides, pissing off Chet was the least I could do for his little prank he tried to pull and my brother.

"Take that back!"

"Why should I bother? You tried to pull the worst prank on my brother! Maybe someone should do the same to you, and see how you like it!" My hands curled into fists. I really, really wanted to punch Chet right in the gut.

Instead, I did probably the next best thing in my situation. "Maybe I should tell Callie."

That sent him running, literally.

Okay, I really hate to use Callie to threaten people like that. I hate using anyone in general to threaten other people with. But this was one of those special cases where I had to make an exception.

"Nice, little bro." I turned to find Frank looking at me, a smirk plastered to his face.

I shrugged in response. "Like I've said, I try."

"That's great. Anyways, you want to check out the lockers now?" He held up a piece of paper, the same paper from last week. "No one else is here except for a few teachers, but they're at a meeting."

"Let's get started, then!" We quickly found all the lockers, and had grand disappointments to find that none of the targets' stuff could point to them as being a killer.

"Empty lockers?" Frank asked after we finished going through Stacy's locker full of random pink paper all over the place.

"Why not?" I really didn't want to, but what were five other lockers going to do to me?

I got my answer when we opened the last one. "Bingo." Red paper, lace, and genuine gold and gems filled the shelves and some of the bottom of the metal container.

"So someone has been using one of these lockers to store their stuff in," Frank muttered. "Question is, who?"

"I dunno." I started to sift through all of the stuff. "Wait a sec!" I pulled out what seemed to be a news article. I skimmed through the contents. "This thing's from Flordia last summer!"

"Let me see!" I handed the paper over to Frank. "'Jewelry store robbed of gold and gemstones, believed to be worth a million dollars'?!"

"That explains why there hasn't been much of a report on thefts here. The jewels are supposed to be in Florida!" I exclaimed.

"Which means our perpetrator was in Florida over summer vacation."

"Can we find out who?"

"I'll ask Phil to see if he can hack into any files about this." Frank put the article back where I had found it, and closed the door.

"Shouldn't we hand the stuff to the police?" I asked as we walked back to his locker.

"Bad idea. We still don't have an idea on who the person behind this is, and alerting the police would probably make them want to kidnap us sooner."

"Good point." Another thought hit my mind. "Did you talk to any of the targets today?"

"I hate calling them targets," Frank said, sighing. "But yeah, I did. They all avoided me."

"Because…?"

"I dunno. Maybe they were all hoping it was over when the police caught that other kid."

"Well, it's a good thing we're still on the case, then."

"How's that?"

"Because if we weren't, then everyone's guard would still be down. Another one of them could even be dead, for all we know."


	10. February 10

I have caught up! Yes!  
Guess what? I still don't own the Hardy Boys!  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Frank

"Find anything new in your translations?" Joe asked me after failing to sneak into my room unnoticed.

"Not much. Kate apparently didn't like being popular, so she was very happy when she fell out of that group. Too much pressure and all. Ron and Troy are… I guess the only way to describe them is 'pure nerds.'"

"Never thought I would hear you insult the nerd community, O Powerful Nerd King."

"You're asking for a pillow right in the kisser, Joe."

"Yeah, I figured." He sighed as he flopped down on my bed, messing up the sheets that I had already fixed less than twenty minutes ago. "Have you talked to Dad at all?"

"Not since Sunday."

"Same here. He decided that he should probably avoid me since I stuck up for you." Joe sighed. "Maybe this is the start of a great family tradition. We try to talk to him every Sunday, and he ignores us the rest of the week."

"You shouldn't have dragged yourself into my problems, Joe."

"Sorry Frank. It's in the contract."

"Contract?"

"The one that brothers have. An unwritten one, if you want to call it anything. Your problems are my problems, and mine are yours."

"But you _are_ my problem."

"And it would be a problem for me to try to change my lovable ways."

"Lovable? Pssh." I wheeled my chair over to the bed and grabbed the pillow.

"Oh, come on! How come you get the pillow?" Joe yelled as I began to smack him in the head with it.

"My room, my pillow." I managed to chase him out a few minutes later, before going back to my computer and exiting out of the emails. I decided I'd read Stacy's stuff during my study hall later.

As for now, I had to remake my bed and go after my brother for messing it up in the first place.

-----------

"So, has Phil decided to screw public opinion?" Joe asked as we walked from the art room after lunch.

"Yeah. Not that the public cares too much anymore. They're all freaked out by the Secret Killer." The signature from the cards somehow found a way to be known by the one kid, who did the chain reaction thing our school is so fond of, so now everyone refers to Greg's murderer as the "Secret Killer."

"Well, Greg is kinda… you know…"

"Yeah." I sighed. "Wish I had a solid clue, though."

"We have a list of six suspects, which narrows it a whole lot from just about everyone attending this school. That is _some_ progress, if you ask me." Joe looked thoughtful for a second, before adding, "And I think it might be safe to take Kate off the list. She wouldn't be stupid enough to add herself to the target list when you started investigating. It's like saying 'See, I'm definitely not the killer because I got a threat too!'"

"She does seem unlikely, considering her councilor did not a more cheerful appearance since she came to terms with her real interests."

"So we have five. Did you look at Stacy's stuff yet?"

"I'm going to. I got study hall, but the computer lab should be open."

"Cool. I got gym, so I guess I'll meet you at your locker after school, okay?"

"Got it, bro."

To my luck, the whole lab was empty except for the teacher. She was reading some pop magazine, so I didn't have to worry about her trying to read my stuff.

I only had to scan through Stacy's info quickly before some of the pieces started falling in place. I opened another attachment that Phil managed to get, which turned out to be the psychologists report. Whether or not I should have been reading this didn't matter. All the information was there. It connected all of the targets. It explained so much…

I checked back on the other targets' info, and picked out all of the information I needed. It was an insane plot, but at the same time it was brilliant…

I exited out of the email, and typed Joe a quick run down with only a few letters. Something told me that they knew. They knew what was going on. They were gonna come after me next.

_Hope you can decipher this, Joe._ After writing all I did know with very few letters, I clicked "Send."

A second later, a cloth with chloroform was placed over my mouth. Two other strong hands held me down as I tried to struggle. I blackened out, with one last thought in mind.

_Hypnotism…_

--------------------

~Joe

"Joe, this is bad!" Ivy practically screamed at me, running up from the theater. It was just before eighth period, right before I was suppose to see my brother and find out any new information.

"Do I really want to know?"

"You know the prop guns that we had?"

"You mean the ones that had real bullets that the teacher was freakin' out about?"

She nodded. "Someone cleaned them this morning for a scene, and got all this red stuff from it."

"Fake blood?"

"We hadn't used the guns till today, so Mr. Robins sent it down to the station to see if the gun was legal or not."

"And?" My stomach had knotted up, waiting for the answer.

"It's Greg's blood. Someone used the prop gun, put in real bullets, and..." She leaned against the wall. "I don't know what else to think. Is it our fault-"

"Ivy, no. Someone just happened to be a bit insane and actually use it for a dangerous purpose," I said, trying to calm her. "They would have probably found some other way to kill Greg. Okay?"

"I know… It's just all so unreal…"

"Can you do me a favor?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure…"

"Find out who knew where the guns were stored, and who could access them. And try to make sure that there are blanks in the gun at all times."

"Are you saying that someone's switching the blanks with real bullets during school hours?"

"Really, I'm guessing. But it still would be a good idea."

"Okay, Joe." She tried to compose herself in front of my eyes, but I could still see the corners of her eyes red from crying. "I'll try to talk to Mr. Robins about this."

"And I'll tell Frank." We parted ways, as I headed off to Frank's last class of the day.

I had to tell this to Frank now. This just upped the game to a whole other level.

"Ms. Shell, can I talk to Frank?" I asked, poking my head into the room.

"He hasn't shown up yet, sweetie. It fact…" She checked the online attendance thing the school had set up (who knows why). "He didn't show up for his seventh period class either."

_Not good. Frank would never do that unless…_

_Unless he was kidnapped too._

* * *

It was bound to come... *waves bye to Frank*


	11. February 11

It's almost done!  
I still don't own the Hardy Boys  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Joe

The police managed to find Frank's bag. There was a heart attached to it.

**I want to gather up all of my loves in my arms, and strangle the life out of them.**

The only good thing that meant was that I had some time. The killer wasn't going to kill anyone else until they managed to collect all the targets.

It didn't put my mind at ease, though. Who knows if Frank is being tortured? How much more time before they get the others? Or will they lose patience and just kill Frank?

I refused to go to school. My dad didn't like the idea. His faith was in the police. But he should know that the police might not figure it out. He knows that it might be best if he did it himself. If I did it myself.

Gotta love Mom, though. She said I could stay home, and offered any help that she could give. Unlike Dad, she knew how the case needed to be treated, whether or not she had any clue of ATAC.

The police did give me Frank's cell phone. There was nothing important on it, according to them. But I knew there must have been something. Some clue or idea… something…

I scrolled through the contacts. I needed to find the number of Frank's "other partner." Frank hadn't really gotten around to telling me who this dude is, but right now I would have to drop that issue.

"'Agent GA.'" Wow. Way to be subtle, Frank.

I pressed "Dial" before I realized that the number was way too familiar.

_"Hello?"_

"I hate you sometimes, Phil. Boyfriend, secret agent. What else, prince of something?"

Phil chuckled into the other end.

-------------

Phil managed to come to my house instead of school, with Callie behind him.

"Callie too?" I said as my greeting. She shot me a look in response.

"I can't just sit back and let your brother stay missing, now can I?"

"Great. Come up to my room. I found out Frank sent me an email in during the study hall that can be assumed as the time he was kidnapped."

I led the two over to my room, and showed them the message. It was really just a bunch of letters and symbols, making it worse than Frank's multi-language stuff.

"Any ideas?" I asked after they both read it over.

"Truthfully, no. I think this is how Frank writes all his notes in class, though. He rewrites them later, but during the lecture he writes like this." Phil shook his head. "This isn't good, is it?"

"Nope."

"I think I get some of this… I borrowed some of Frank's notes before, so he showed me how his notes worked." Callie explained. "Can I get a paper and pen?"

"Sure." I took a notepad and a pen Frank had left on my table the day before, and handed them over. Callie, in turn, handed it over to Phil.

"Write the notes in a different language."

"Again with the other language thing?" I asked in annoyance.

"Just in case. Besides, you're in the room, so you'd just have to remember."

"Any preferences?" Phil asked, sitting against the bed.

"You know Dutch, right? Use that."

Callie turned her attention back to the computer screen, and began to decipher the message. "The first part is about Troy and Ron. They actually have a lot of muscle in them. According to this, they won a few trophies because of it."

"Great to know," I said sarcastically. "And it's important why?"

"They've always been aiming to get into Ivy League schools. But they're number five and six. You know it gets harder the farther you are from the top."

"But they killed Greg, so they bumped up I'm guessing."

"Not only that, but they rid one of the potential people that the schools were looking into. Apparently, Greg had a big possibility to getting into a really good college. With him out of the way, the people would look more towards the other talent in the area, namely Troy and Ron."

"That makes sense," I said as Phil scribbled furiously on the paper. "But why Valentine's Day? Why not do it during November or earlier? That way, their numbers would count."

"Getting there." Callie took a few more minutes to look through the rest of the email. "Whoa."

"That didn't sound like a good 'whoa,' Cal."

"It's not. The rest of this thing is about Stacy."

"Stacy? She did this?"

"If your brother's notes are right, then yeah."

"But why would she do that?"

"You won't believe this. Apparently, in freshman year, she went to a psychologist that was a friend of her mothers. She was having a hard time dealing with all of the new emotions. The woman thought it was because she just entered high school."

"But?"

"On Valentine's Day, Diana told her friends that she way gay. Everyone accepted that, except for Stacy. She never told Diana in her face, but she was furious. And the psychologist realized that the feelings were because Stacy was a lesbian herself."

"Interesting story, but it still doesn't make much sense," Phil commented, looking up from his notes.

"Not until I read you the rest. According to the psychologist, Stacy never returned after February. Stacy didn't want to accept the fact, so she tried to find ways to tell herself it wasn't true. She dated boys, went to groups that try to convince people that they're straight…"

"None of it worked, I'm guessing."

Callie shook her head. "She even learned hypnosis. Somehow, she became a master of it, and began using it on other people."

"That's illegal, isn't it? Practicing it without any certification or anything?"

"It might. Frank thinks the bigger problem is that she thought the only way to get rid of her feelings is to get rid of her friends for being so accepting of something she hated."

My eyes widened. "So she wanted to kill them."

Callie nodded. "Frank thinks she had it planned out in the summer, because she stole all the gold and gems then. She wasn't that strong, so she got Troy and Ron to help."

"Through hypnotism or bribing?"

"Could be a little of both. They certainly had a reason to join up with her, so it wouldn't take much to push them over the edge."

"Valentine's Day would be symbolic, since it was really the start of everything. That's why she used the cards and all," Phil pointed out.

Another thought struck through my head. I pulled out my phone, and quickly punched in a number.

"Who are you calling? The police?" Callie asked.

I held up a hand, telling her to be quiet. The other end picked up. _"Hello?"_

"Ivy, it's Joe. Does Stacy, Troy, or Ron have any access to the prop guns?"

_"Stacy does, which was why I was gonna call you."_

"More bad news?"

_"Those three went missing during first period, as well as one of the guns! And the blanks for that gun were in the garbage…"_

I gritted my teeth. "Can you leave school to help us find Frank?"

_"Yeah, I can."_

"We'll meet you in front of the school in fifteen minutes, then. And try to bring a prop gun with extra blanks. We might need to scare off some people."

_"Okay."_

I hung up without saying goodbye, and grabbed my coat. "Come on. We got to go find Frank."


	12. February 12

Only two more days!  
I still do not own the Hardy Boys.  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Frank

_It hurts. They're all around me. They have knives. They want me gone._

_They were my friends and family…_

My mind screamed that it was only an illusion I was seeing in my head. Only the hypnosis working over me. But it was overpowered by the silent screams from the dream.

_They keep stabbing me. I'm fully awake, and I can feel every time the metal makes contact with my flesh. I'm screaming so loudly, and they're smiling at me. They laugh at my pain._

_My skin is drenched with scarlet liquid. I try to move, but I can't. All I can do is cry. Cry and make them even happier at my misery._

Stacy smiled as she got up from her chair. She slipped the gun into her back pocket. She watched as I shook, not being able to handle the dream. "Let's see if it worked."

Stacy took a picture out from my wallet, the one with my father standing proud in front of the police departments. She waved it in front of my face.

_It hurts, it hurts…_

She was satisfied with my cringe and forcing my eyes shut.

"Now you know how I felt with everyone looking at me." With that, she turned and left.

--------------

I'm in an abandoned warehouse, I think. I'm on a platform about two or three stories from the ground. I lost track of the time I've been tied up and left up here. All I know is when the sun rises and sets.

It could only have been two days, but it feels longer. Stacy did leave some food, but only after she plays her twisted mind game on me. She forces me to imagine all the people I know stabbing me. I feel it physically, and it hurts.

There is only one relief. I can't bring myself to imagine Joe, Phil, Ivy, Callie, or Mom hurting me. Stacy's trying, but my mind is still strong enough to save them from her evil experiments.

The day passes. I would have thought someone would have stopped her by now. But she's cunning. Ron and Troy are probably following her instructions, so they probably escaped from the police too.

They didn't know the truth about Stacy. I don't think anyone but the psychologist and I know what Stacy keeps under her mask.

They came back late at night. They had Diana, Kate, and Terrance. I couldn't bear to look at the others.

"Now we'll definitely get into the colleges we wanted…" Troy muttered under his breath after placing the other prisoners next to me.

I laughed. A loud, crazed laugh. "This isn't about colleges, Troy. Can't you figure that out?"

He and Ron looked at me, their eyes both full of hatred and curiosity all at once.

I gave a dramatic sigh. I must have been out of it from all of the torture…

"Stacy's gay. Lesbian. Homo. This whole plot was for her to become straight. Killing off people who would accept her. And you two are probably next."

"No way…" Those two are very dense. For nerds, they sucked.

"Oh yeah. She wants us all dead. She wants us out of the way so she can finally tell herself that she's straight." After a second, I added, "And she would be number one. Doesn't have to worry about competition for a nice school."

"He can't be telling the truth, right Troy?" Ron asked with uncertainty.

"Of course he's lying!" Troy lied. "Stacy?"

They turned around to find Stacy at the edge of the platform, crying into her hands. I rolled my eyes. I couldn't help it, even though if one of the three did catch me, I was in for another visit with Hell.

"Stacy…?" The two idiots walked up to her. I forced my eyes closed as the scene played out in my head.

Two gunshots later, I looked up. Stacy smiled as the two boys held on to their stomachs, the gaps between their fingers filling with blood. It spilled over and onto their clothes and the floor. With a simple push, they went over the edge. Two thumps were heard with their moans of pain.

"So loud," Stacy complained. She aimed the gun down to the ground, and fired two more shots. The cries were silenced.

"They were getting to troubling to deal with, anyways." She gave another sweet smile at our direction. I refused to look at her. _We're all here…_

"Now the fun really begins. Which of you should go first?" She pointed at each of us in turn. "Frank should go first, since he was waiting the longest. Then Terrance, since he did manage to escape me…"

"You did?" I managed to mumble.

"For five seconds. What good did it do me?" he answered back.

"At least you weren't chloroformed."

"Oh, she did that after I escaped. I woke up when she brought me here."

"Quiet, you two!" Stacy smacked me in the face. She might have drawn some blood. I don't know. I wasn't all the way here, considering that I couldn't get decent sleep without waking up every hour thinking that there's a murderer near me.

"Now then… Kate goes next. And finally, Diana. The one who started it all."

"What do you mean? I didn't turn you gay! It was your own mind-"

The gun went off. We were lucky, though. Stacy had aimed for the floor.

"You destroyed me. You made sure I wasn't the straight little princess I was supposed to be! That's why you go last. You get to see everyone else die first. You dragged Frank into this with your constant worrying. It would have been okay if you thought it was a prank. It would have made my work easier."

"But you basically warned us!"

"I was releasing my anger!" She screamed, finally losing control. "I had to control my anger in till this day. I had to wait for the right moment to kill you all." She turned and flipped her hair. "I'll let you talk for a little bit longer without me. Then the fun starts."

"Why did you kill Greg earlier?" My question hung in the air as Stacy slowly turned around to face me.

"He was getting in the way. That's all. He wanted to switch to my locker. I couldn't let him get all my precious stuff. Besides, he made a joke and called me gay."

"The jewels that are supposed to be in Florida."

"That place had millions already. It could deal with some missing stones." She turned away for a brief second, before turning around again. "Well, it's actually only a minute before midnight, so I might as well get this over with."

I struggled against the ropes around my wrists behind my back. If I only had a few more seconds, maybe…

Terrance must have felt my hands moving. He looked at Stacy with a serious expression and said "Why did you tell us you were gay? We could have helped."

"I AM NOT GAY!"

In those few seconds, I managed to free myself. I got up, and lunged at Stacy with what was left of my strength.

She had speed and energy on her side. She easily dodged me, and seconds later I find myself hanging over the edge of the platform, holding on with my hands. I had managed to grab on at the last second.

"Too bad, Frank. I was going to give you a bit of mercy, and finish you off very quickly. But now you have to fall to your doom."

Pictures of Troy and Ron filled my mind as I tried to pull myself back up. I couldn't manage it, though. I was too weak.

"Goodbye Frank." The bells signaling midnight were the only other things I could hear as three gunshots fired into the night.


	13. February 13

Sorry for being late and all. The Valentine part will come... the day after Valentine's Day... been very busy...  
Don't own the Hardy Boys  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Joe

I had to hand it to Callie. When she set off the prop gun with the blanks, I thought it was actual bullets being shot. So did Stacy, which gave us enough opportunity to do the rescue work.

Unlike my brother's failed attempted to tackle her, I managed to get a hold of Stacy and take her gun. Phil had quickly gone over to where Frank was to help pull him up.

"No! NOO!" Stacy shrieked near my ear. "This can't-"

"It did, Stacy. You lost." She struggled as I tried to hold her down.

"NO! There's still… one more thing!" She looked over to wear my brother was with Phil, breathing heavily. "Frank, listen to my voice! Bring out that innocence! It's the only thing you are!"

I had no idea what she was talking about, until I saw Frank freeze. "What…?"

Ivy walked over to Frank, trying to get him to focus on her. After shaking his shoulders and lightly smacking his face, she asked Frank "Are you okay?"

"No. It's too dark. Where's Mr. Bunny?"

"Mr. what?" Ivy looked at me for a second.

"We… we had a little stuffed bunny when we were younger. But why he would say that…"

Ivy turned her attention back on Frank, and said in a soft and slow voice, "Frank, how old are you?"

My brother looked genuinely confused for a second. He counted on his fingers like a little kid would. Then, he held up his two hands.

"Seven?" Callie said, coming up from the stairs to the platform. "How…"

"What did you do?!" I addressed to Stacy, forcing her to stand with me holding her hands behind her back.

"He's a little kid now. That's all. And only I can break the spell," Stacy said smugly. "Free me, and maybe I'll help."

Sirens began to fill the air. "We'll let the police decide that," I told her. I watched as Frank began to look around wildly, as if he realized he woke up from a nightmare.

_Please be okay._

------------

"How long will it take for them to analyze him?" Callie asked softly.

It was a decent hour of the day. An hour after lunch, in fact. The four of us, plus my father, were waiting in the police station. Some professionals were looking at Frank at the moment, trying to tell us how to save my brother from himself.

Stacy, on the other hand, was in an interrogation room. She demanded to be set free and freed of all charges if we wanted to save Frank. There was absolutely no chance of that happening, with three counts of murder on her head as well as four counts of attempted murder.

Diana and Kate had gone straight home after the police released them. They hadn't bothered calling to even see how Frank was doing. Terrance, on the other hand, had offered to stay and wait with us. We told him to go home and rest, though. He deserved it, compared to the other two.

Dad came right when he found out Stacy had hypnotized my brother. Problem was, the second Frank saw Dad, he ran the opposite direction. When I found him hiding in one of the rooms, Frank told me Dad was "scary" and "out to get him."

The psychologist finally came out, Frank in tow. He ran over to greet me like a kid would after visiting a scary doctor.

"Well?" I asked, trying to comfort my brother.

"Stacy did a very thorough job. Frank is beyond convinced that he's a seven year old."

"What about reversing it?" Callie asked, her eyes not leaving Frank.

"At this point, I think only Stacy can free him."

The four of us looked at each other. We knew we couldn't meet Stacy's demands, after all that had happened.

My dad was the first to speak, breaking the gaze I had on the others. "Well, I guess we have to live with Frank growing up all over-"

"How had you say that?!" Dad looked at me as I filled with rage.

"Joe, we have to face-"

"Since when did you agree to things like that?!" I shouted at my father. "My brother thinks he's a _freakin' seven year_ _old!_"

"What? Do you want to give into Stacy's demands?" Dad risen his voice, and got up from his chair.

"I'm saying that we shouldn't give up! I'm saying that we can find some way to get Frank back to normal! My brother should not spend the rest of his life think that he's a sever year old because he deserves more than this!" My face was reddening from my anger. My brother was suffering, and my father was giving up!

"Joe, calm down," Ivy said softly.

"I can't with him in the room," I hissed. "I can't when this man who's supposed to be our strong father just gives up on someone who deserves more than this."

"Um, you guys… where did Frank go?" Callie asked, looking around the room.

I looked, and mumbled "Shit." I ran out of the building, Callie and Ivy following me.

"Where the hell is Phil?" I asked, looking around wildly.

"I'm guessing he followed Frank out during the shouting match. They couldn't have gotten far, either." Ivy pulled out her cell phone, and dialed a number. "His phone should be on-"

"Forget it. They're over there." Callie pointed to the sidewalk, where Phil held Frank's hand as my brother guided him away from the area.

We chased after them, which was kinda hard since the sidewalk had ice all over it.

"Dude! What's with leaving us all of a sudden?" I asked when we finally did manage to reach the two.

"Frank wanted to go to the playground," Phil explained, smiling to my brother. "He got freaked out by your father."

"A break," Ivy said, nodding. "Good idea. Besides, we need some time to look over Frank's notes."

"Frank's notes?"

"I found them in the art room. I'm guessing there're about the case, since I counted more than five different languages used." She reached into her messenger bag, and pulled out a notebook.

"Yep. Frank's handwriting and hundreds of languages." I took the notebook. "Any chance we can decipher this?"

"I don't even recognize half of the languages…" Callie mumbled.

"Same here. There are little bits here and there, but overall I can't make any of it out." Phil shook his head. "We can't give up, though."

"Never."

We finally got to the playground about two blocks away from the station. Despite the snow, Frank began playing around as the rest of us tried to figure out what Frank's notes.

Ten minutes later, and we could only figure out a few sentences about Diana. Frank had quickly gotten bored, and walked back to us.

"What'cha doing?" he asked, looking over my shoulder.

"Trying to read this."

"Oh." A few seconds later… "Can we go back? I wants hot chocolate."

"Sure." The four of us got up, trying to hide the disappointment on our faces. Frank grabbed the notebook, and looked at it for a second.

"Can I read it out loud?"

"You… you can read it?" I asked, amazed. "How…"

"Stacy's hypnotism didn't affect his intelligence," Phil said in amazement. "Frank can probably read off his notes with ease!"

"Frank, can you read all the information under 'Stacy'?" I asked, silently praying that he would. Any info we could find out about her might give us a way to save my brother…

"Okay." On the walk back, Frank read everything he could about Stacy. None of it really seemed to help, until Frank read "'And Stacy is very… eg… ego… tis… ic…"

"'Egotistic'?" Ivy asked, trying to help him out. She gave me a worried glance. "Shouldn't he know how to pronounce that if his mind's still intact?"

"I don't like the sound of it either. But, I think I just figured out a way to get Frank back." I looked at my brother. "Let's go pay a visit to the scary girl, Frank."

------------

"Bringing him in here won't get me to change my mind," Stacy said as I made Frank sit near the door. We were in the interrogation room, Stacy handcuffed and sitting in the chair farthest from the door.

"That's great. But I think I have you all figured out." Chief Collig watched me as I took a few steps towards Stacy.

"Really now? What did you figure out?"

"That you actually don't know how to free my brother."

Stacy seemed to snap, but kept her cool. "I do know."

"Of course you do." I smiled. "You shouldn't lie, Stacy. Not many people are good at hypnotism, so you shouldn't feel bad if you don't-"

"I do know!" she screamed. Her face was already turning red. Good.

"Stacy, just admit you can't-"

"Just watch me!" Before she realized what she was doing, Stacy clapped her hands and shouted "Wake up!"

_Guess her voice had to be the one saying the commands_ I thought as I watched Frank shake his head. I turned around and guided him out of the room as Stacy finally realized what she did. She was screaming her head off as the chief tried to calm her down.

"Joe?" my brother asked, sounding like he just woke up from a nap. "What happened? I was at the warehouse… and then I started dreaming that I was like, seven years old. And you were there, except you were…"

"It's okay Frank. I'll tell you about it-" I stopped when I spotted our father. Frank turned, and looked at Dad for one second before dropping to the ground.

"Frank? Frank!"

"It hurts… It hurts all over… He's stabbing me…" he hugged himself, shaking. His pupils dilated, and he ignored everything around him.

I held Frank as I realized that he hadn't escaped Stacy's terror completely.


	14. February 14

Last chapter! A few days late...  
I don't own the Hardy Boys  
Enjoy!

* * *

~Frank

"You done making the list, bro?" Joe asked from my doorway.

"Yeah." I picked up the paper I had been writing on all morning, and handed it to my brother. "I don't think the psychologist is gonna be happy with it."

"Is it really that bad?"

"Forty plus names, including Dad, Chet, and Biff."

"Great… Well, I'm not on the list, right?"

"I'm talking to you, aren't I? You saw my episode with Dad. Anyone on that list, I can't even freakin' look at!" I shook my head. "It's not gonna be a good winter break…"

"Well, you got me and Phil. Callie and Ivy are going tomorrow."

"Going?"

"Oh, right. I didn't tell you yet."

"Then you might want to tell me now!"

"Okay, okay!" Joe threw up his hands as we descended down the stairs. "ATAC asked if we knew any good detectives because they needed new agents. So I decided after all of this…"

"You did not…"

Joe smiled. "Last time we'll see Agent Ivy or Agent Callie for a while."

"Joe! You're dragging them into… well, this!" I shook my head. "Did you forget what happened to _me_?!"

"We had a nice talk about it. They're up for it. Besides, they won't be full time agents. Just once in a while, when ATAC has a shortage of hands." Joe shrugged. "And chances of us going against someone like Stacy again are very slim."

"But still…"

"Come on, Frank. They aren't damsels in distress. I still have the bruises Callie left on my arm from last Saturday!" Joe got to the bottom of the stairs first, and waited for me. "They'll be fine."

"I'm still not so sure…"

"Of course you're not." Joe sighed. "Let's just wish them luck, okay? They're going to train for the next week, so the least you can do is help me send them off."

"Fine." We grabbed our coats, and Joe got to the keys of Dad's car. I was still "unfit to drive" after the incident with Stacy.

We sat in the car in silence, Joe behind the wheel. I tried to look out the window, when I saw Biff walking down the sidewalk.

_It hurts… He's coming after me…_

I curled up in the seat, trying not to shake.

"Frank?"

I didn't look up. _He's there. He wants me gone. There's blood everywhere…_

"Frank!" The car stopped. Joe was leaning over next to me, an expression of worry plastered to his face. "Are you okay?"

"It hurts…"

"Frank, it's in your mind. No one's here to hurt you." My brother put a hand on my back, trying to comfort me. "It's only me."

I wanted to look up, to say "It's nothing." But I couldn't. All I could do was cower like a child, scared to look around.

-------------

"Are you sure you're okay, Frank?" Callie asked.

"Yeah, I think…" It had taken several minutes before Joe considered that I was well enough for him to drive again. It was only to Phil's house, but it was a living Hell for me.

"What did the psychologist say about it?" Ivy asked from her spot on the couch.

"She said he's gonna be doing this until he can 'mentally overcome the problem'." Joe made quotation marks in the air. "Then she tried to say as nicely as she could that it might take a billion years."

"What about your dad?"

"Frank can't stay in the same room as him. Mom banished him to his study for now," Joe said, watching to see if I had a reaction. When it was clear that mentioning my father didn't lead to a breakdown, he continued. "Frank cannot look or hear any of the people on the list, unless we all want him to have a breakdown." He handed the list to Ivy.

"Chet, Biff… Diana? She got on the list?"

"I don't know. Last night, I had a nightmare…" I explained. "Diana was there, and she… she…"

"It's okay." Ivy handed the list to Callie. "If it makes you feel better, Kate called me last night. She asked about you."

I gave a weak laugh. "How's that suppose to help?"

"She broke up with Diana."

"What?" I was upset with Diana, I'll admit, but I didn't want them to break up…

Phil came into the room, holding a bag of chips. "She called me, too. I got to listen to an hour of reasoning of why she broke their relationship."

"Why?"

"Something along the lines that it wasn't the first time Diana was along the lines of being a jerk. Apparently, she tried to ignore you the past week as a way to say it wasn't real. She actually forbid Kate from having any contact with you."

"Sounds like the beginnings of an abusive relationship," Callie said, finally sitting down on the opposite end of the couch.

"_Was_ the beginnings," Phil corrected. "And our friend Diana has to go back to anger management, since she smashed another window with a can of paint when Kate broke up with her."

"I knew that chick was still a little off," Joe said.

"That's not even the big news. According to a little birdie that I happen to know, Diana never completed her anger management courses a few years ago. She just happened to appear all in self control, when really she took her anger out in disguised ways. That's why she does all the modern art stuff. The things that look like messes were actually created from her anger."

"I would say healthy way to release anger, except she went and smashed a window." Joe grabbed for the chips.

"Only through art, though? It doesn't seem like she would release all of her anger through that," Callie said.

"She did other stuff too. She even destroyed some rooms in school, but made it seem like someone else did."

"Wow," I said, amazed. Diana never really seemed like that type of girl. Then again, I really had no good readings on the people this case was about. Too much focusing on my issues, I guess.

"Speaking of which, I found out more about Stacy's case. She lost all of her bargaining chips with that stupid stunt she pulled," Ivy announced. "She also happened to destroy some rooms at school to disguise her getaway. That's why the police failed to come up with anything for a while."

"How did you guys find me, anyways?" I asked.

"Good question. Phil was the one who figured out the location." We all stared at Phil, who had a grin on his face.

"It took a while, but I managed to get the signal on the tracker I got on you to actually work. I think your banging it around while getting kidnapped messed it up."

"Tracker?" I racked through my memories. Since when did Phil give me a tracker?

"Your necklace. I gave it to you a while ago, remember?"

I fingered the pendant "You put a tracker in my necklace?"

Phil shrugged. "I was worried, considering I was still getting over the fact that my boyfriend is a secret agent and all."

"Well, thanks." I had a feeling that the beginnings of a blush were working its way to my face. "Anything else that should be added?"

"Besides the fact that you're blushing?" I reached over and smacked my brother in the leg. "Ow!"

"Mr. Robins is beyond pissed about Stacy and the prop guns. He didn't get on my case, considering I had asked and didn't use real bullets. But now he's convinced that the guns should be locked up in a bank until we work on filming in the spring."

"That's good, I think. Unless you were gonna take the prop guns and scare the crap out of people."

"It's good. Besides, I got other things to worry about. Like Rachel leaving GSACA, and putting me in charge." Ivy gave a dramatic sigh. "And then the whole ATAC thing now…"

"It's not too late to back out," I reminded her.

"Are you kidding? This is gonna be awesome!"

Callie nodded her head in agreement. "A week or torment coming up, but it'll be worth it. Besides, someone needs to watch your backs, considering you're all boys and all."

"And what does that mean?" Joe asked.

"Oh, nothing… ."

"Hey! For your information, Frank and I solved plenty of cases by ourselves!" Joe crossed his hands. "Show some respect to your elders!"

"You shouldn't have said that…" I told my brother, as Callie and Ivy shared an evil grin.

"No, it's perfectly fine, Frank. We should have helped you crossed the street all of those times…"

"And helped you cut your food."

"And get the door."

"Shut up." Joe slumped in his seat. "I get the point. Maybe I should have said 'superiors.'"

"Except then you would actually have to be good at something."

"I am good at some things!"

"Only in knowledge of celebrity gossip. And that's always important to know," Callie said, rolling her eyes.

"We had plenty of cases involving celebrities."

"But you probably had way more involving the little people."

"Are you two gonna argue about this? I want the heads up to leave if you are," Ivy said, getting up from her seat.

"Might as well leave for a while," Phil said, following suit. He held out a hand to me. "Coming?"

"Yeah." I took his hand, got up, and was lead to the kitchen. Ivy smiled to me before grabbing her coat to disappear outside for a bit.

"You okay?" Phil asked as he began to go through the pantries.

"Yep." _Nope._

"You're lying."

"Yep." I shook my head. "I can't believe Stacy got to me. I mean, now that I look back, I probably should have nailed her-"

"But she's a psycho, and those are the hardest people to read." He took out a bag of my favorite chips. "And you'll get over this. You have the strongest mental mind out of everyone in Bayport. If anyone can beat this… mental game, if you would, it's you."

"But what if I can't get over it? What if Stacy's hypnotism drives me so mad-"

"Calm down." Phil gave me a hug, which I couldn't help but leaned into it. "A day at a time, Frank. You'll get over it, because you have a strong mentality and you got crazy friends who are loyal."

"You forgot the crazy brother and boyfriend."

"That too." He handed me a chip. "We'll be here, and you're gonna be fine. Just in time for the exchange group to come, too."

"Exchange group?"

"You forgot? The exchange group from River Heights?"

I blinked as the memories slowly came back. "Oh yeah! Nancy Drew is supposed to be with them!"

"You know a girl from the group? Should I be worried?" Phil asked, chuckling.

"Depends if another mystery comes up or not," I said. "A great friend, but a competitive detective..."

* * *

There will be a sequel, I thinks... Called "Playing Death"

I also want to explain something that I did not mention in the plot. The reason Frank's torture is, essentially, turning into a little kid, is because the torture wasn't exactly meant for him. The torture was for his family and friends. That was Stacy's way of assuring a way to get a lighter sentence if it was needed. She had already tortured Frank, but this was to torture everyone who knew Frank in an emotional way.

Thanks to Lusy611 for pointing this out as a bad source of torture for Frank. I'm glad I was able to clear this up, enen though this is still a bit lame...


End file.
